I tracked down the yard owner who put me in touch with the boat owner who had contracted the job himself. Over the past couple of off season lay-ups I had contemplated stripping all bottom paint from the hull, but have never been too eager to grab the scrapers, chisels and sandpaper or pay the yard the estimated cost to strip of $ 2400 to $ 3200. When I purchased the boat, 2 seasons old, she had a couple of coats of red “hard” bottom paint and no barrier coat. I had the dealer prep the bottom by sanding the “red” to hopefully make a good mechanical bond for the ablative ”black” Interlux Micron Extra w/BioLux, a bottom paint that I’d been using with great success in my area for years. I just completed season 7 with the Albin and after about season 3 the black started coming of in big pieces leaving a very exaggerated orange peel / rough surface in many areas with the red still holding strong. The original red looked as if when those 1st 2 coats were put on they were rolled and not brushed out smooth. The prep from the dealer to me was not up to my expectations and now here I am.
Well … in just 7 days from spying the stripped boat, PITOU’s bottom was being Soda Cleaned. All told 1 ½ hours prep to tent her to capture the blasted paint and dry soda then 2 hours to blast. There was a short delay following the prep. The blaster suited up in his tyvek, booties then fired up the John Deere diesel which ran his equipment and the oil pressure gauge was reading ZERO! We all agreed better safe than sorry for his equipment and my selfishness to protect my hull / I wanted full attention on the job and not to have the blaster looking over his shoulder concerned about his equipment. With two days delay they were back with a bad ground found and gauge working and ready to begin. I took advantage of the down time and erected the shrink wrap frame. The job went smooth, I wrote a check for $750 and was ready to shrink wrap and contemplate my labor side of this deal next spring. I’ll follow-up with the recommended Interlux barrier coat process in the spring with 2 coats of the Micron Extra. I was very glad to see … no blisters or moisture seeping from the bottom, around the thru hulls or the bolts holding the swim platform to the transom. The bottom is dry! I would guess something had been done right from the time of fiberglass lay-up and through the first 9 seasons of boating.
Man-o-man what a project, even with the “hard part” done by the soda team 
. I thought that soda cleaning was 100% … not quite, but at least 98.9% …. One still needs to sand the whole bottom and use the Surface prep/mold release to get the media out of the hull first or you will just grind it in. It was still better than stripping or scraping in my opinion, which both would have required a final 80 sanding. 
